iD Software has brought the hallowed horror of Doom3 to Xbox. While it's essentially the same game as the celebrated PC masterpiece, it is not a mere "port job"; graphics, audio and control all look and feel innately Xbox--i.e. expectedly smooth and scintillating, aurally all-encompassing and ergonomically-intuitive, respectively.

As a first-person shooter (FPS) mostly confined to dim, dimmer and/or completely dark environments, gameplay is as much about psychological terror as it is demonic mutant horror, with mostly your guns or your flashlight (never both at the same time) to help you through, though an innate ability to decipher cryptic PDA messages and a natural suspiciousness of nooks, crannies and over-sprung closet doors that may or may not harboring abhorrent aliens or maniacal mutants certainly helps.

So if you're into suspending disbelief, turning the lights down low and cranking the volume up high, Doom3 can scare you senseless. Then it lets you decimate said scaries with a lawnmower-esque chain gun, an eat-this shotty or, later, the immensely satisfying BFG 9000 and, lastly, the wonderfully apocalyptic Soul Cube.

New and exclusive to the Xbox version of Doom 3 is a two-player co-operative mode where you and split-screen buddy or disembodied online pal can play through the single player game as a duo, with each level specially tweaked and balanced to ensure traumatic similitude to the lone Marine experience. There's also your standard clutch of online deathmatch modes for up to (just) four free-for-allers which, while nothing exceptional, round out the entire must-have package quite solidly.

[TIP: In the two-player co-operative mode of Doom 3 (Xbox), you can both play a quick games of "Super Turkey Puncher" on the arcade machines in the Command Access Junction section of the first level. ]